As an intrinsic business student at California State Northridge, Im

learning that the avenues of ingenuity and success are endless. In an

effort to continue my education outside of the classroom, I remain
curious about the ways in which new technologies benefit the people of
our communities and respective environments. My boggling mind has
led me to research BIM (Business Information Modeling).
WHAT IS BIM?
Building Information Modeling is a fascinating topic that not a lot of people know about,
however, through everybodys day-to-day interactions with buildings, it can easily be
understood. At first, one might not think of BIM as an attractive blog topic, but I am sure
my blog will enlighten after learning the various ways BIM can help people through
improving construction and design.
BIM replaces the two-dimensional imaging that has and continues to dominate the
construction and design industry. BIMs three-dimensional images model the design of

various buildings, from residential to commercial, in a cohesive and systemized way.

BIM brings a transparency to the construction industry and reality to drawings that has
never existed before (Pramod 2).
HOW IS BIM BENEFICIAL?
Fig.1

source: Building Information Modeling(BIM), Syntegra Consulting,

Web.
Safety
Safety record in the construction industry is one of the worst. In the
United States, the construction industry has an injury rate 50% higher
than the average of other industries (McGeorge and Zou 163). With
BIM, construction workers can be trained better to reduce onsite
injuries. Better training results from eliminating many risks during the
design stage because contractors to visually see and evaluate hazards
and risks (Azhar and Behringer 1).
BIMs reliable documentation helps prevent mishaps down the road.
Archiving development throughout each phase allows people to learn
from mistakes and natural disasters. For example, earthquake damage
is being recorded into BIM software. With this recorded data,
resolutions can continue to improve so that structures and people are
safe (Birely and Pereira 2).

Reduced Waste
By foreseeing problems, waste is significantly reduced. Labor and
materials are managed better, and purchasing is more accurate.
Reducing labor and materials essentially save time, which also saves
money.
With standardized purchases, the entire job cost is also reduced. In
fact, buildings themselves can be standardized for duplicate
production. With changes into the BIM system through a computer,
plans can easily and quickly be modified, if needed, and produced.
Maintenance
BIM provides visuals and data to help manage and maintain any
property so that it is in the best condition. Analyzing the data will be
able to determine the maintenance cycles of these buildings. Building
with BIM can be compared with one another to compare maintenance
needs (Pramod 7). In the end, this will significantly improve the
buildings lifecycle (McGeorge and Zou 260).
Faculty maintenance helps keep of the buildings equipment and
related maintenance requirements in one place. Information such as
inventory, history and warranty information can be in one place for
anyone to access at anytime. This information can easily be retrieved
and relayed to staff and contractors for a variety of reasons (Pramod
11).
Systematization & Communication
BIM allows all sectors of construction and design industries to
communicate with one another. Before BIM, there was no uniform way
of sharing knowledge pertaining to a particular project and information
could not be used down the road. Having software that is accessible to
all can be adjusted to the person or people of interest (McGeorge and
Zou 263). For example, a general contractor may want to show his
concrete pumper different plans than his painters. This significantly
improves efficiency and saves cost for everyone involved.

Fig.2

source: What is BIM? WSP Group, Web.

Visualization
The images depth and versatility brings a different perspective to
seeing and understanding buildings and design.
Innovation
Smart technologies are being integrated into every section of society.
The issue with integrating smart technology into buildings is the
maintenance of technologies. These systems are complex, and much
detailed needs to allocated and maintained. BIM has the capacity to
store various hardware and software data in one place to seamlessly
connect different business systems (Pramod 9).
To really understand the doors BIM offers for future innovating ideas,
one must see how it works.
HOW TO TRANSITION?

BIM can upload and integrate existing drawings into its software. In
order to integrate with changing times, it is imperative to move to BIM.
BIM is a trend that is catching the attention of people worldwide.
CONTROVERSY WITH BIM?
BIM is a recent innovation. Therefore, it is not familiar with everyone in
the construction and design industries. Also, within these industries is
usually one leader, who has a long history of managing their business
in a particular way. These leaders tend to not want to change their
ways (Pramod 2). Considering not everyone is familiar and actively
using BIM, a broad range of software still exists. As it stands, there is
no uniform consensus of data collection.
Also, there is controversy as to whether construction is managementdriven or technologically driven (McGeorge and Zou 265)?
McGeorge and Zou argue that one of the most important aspects of
constructability is not the lack of information but rather the lack of
management of information (265).
Nevertheless, with increased exposure and growth, this can and will
become standardized within the construction and design industries,
and I think the overall benefits of Building Information Modeling
override the skepticisms.

WORKS CITED
Behringer, B.S., and Salman Azhar. A BIM-based Approach for Communicating and
Implementing a Construction Site Safety Plan. 49th ASC Annual International
Conference Proceedings, Associated Schools of Construction, San Louis Obispo,
CA, 2013. Web.
Birely, A.C., and E.H.A.F. Pereira. Recommendations for the Use of BIM Methods for
Management of Post-Earthquake Damage Data. Proceedings of the 10th National
Conference in Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute, Anchorage, AK, 2014. Web.
McGeorge, Denny, and Patrick Zou. Construction Management: New Directions. 3rd ed.
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2013.Print.
NBS. What is BIM (Building Information Modelling) NBS National BIM Library.
Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 25 Oct. 2013.Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Pramod, Reddy K. BIM for Building Owners and Developers: Making a Business Case
for Using BIM on Projects. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.Print.
Song, Wenwu, and Rong Yang. BIM for Building Water Supply and Drainage Design.
International Conference on Automation, Mechanical Control and Computational
Engineering, Chengdu, China, 2015.Web.